Keystone Energy Forum

Don't expect the energy boom in Montana and the Dakotas to end anytime soon.

Expressing surprise at the enormous increase in U.S. production of oil and natural gas by unconventional means, Thomas Helbling, a division chief in the IMF's (International Monetary Fund) Research Department, was forced to admit that it was free enterprise that was responsible for it after all.

A draft State Department report concludes that building the Keystone XL pipeline would not speed up development of Canada's oil sands, dealing a blow to environmentalists who claim Keystone would worsen climate change.

Fracking is short for "hydraulic fracturing," and the catch-all term used to describe the process of extracting oil and natural gas from shale rock formations deep underground. The process goes roughly like this: A company drills down more than a mile deep into the shale rock formations. Then comes what is known as "horizontal drilling" - effectively, the drilling turns 90 degrees, so that the well is exposed to more rock than it would be otherwise.

Terry Fleck, pictured in his home office Friday in Bismarck with walleye he caught in Lake Sakakawea, is helping energy companies and conservation groups work together to protect the North Dakota outdoors.

Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators today sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to approve the Keystone XL pipeline following Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman's approval of the route through Nebraska Tuesday. In one day's time, the letter gained 53 signatures, a majority of the U.S. Senate. Senators in addition to Hoeven and Baucus who attended the news conference include Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), David Vitter (R-La.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

In an effort to educate, inform, assess impacts to wildlife by energy development and develop future management practices, a Director's Energy Task Force has been formed within the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.

"North Dakota voters strongly support a greater state role in setting aside land to protect natural areas, water and wildlife habitat, according to a new poll," Forum Communications reported in 2010.

Demand for specialty-steel products used in hydraulic fracking is poised to continue rising next year as energy companies step up exploration and production in shale-rock formations, Optima Specialty Steel Inc. said. Optima's sales of steel tubing to natural gas producers have climbed 15 percent in 2012, and a similar increase is forecast for 2013, said Kevin Stevick, chief executive officer of the closely held company. Growth at the Miami-based company is coming from fracking in states including Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, he said.

Conservationists and the oil industry are joining together to create recommendations for building infrastructure in the state that will reduce wildlife impacts.